The Society of Friends of the Subcarpathian Rus’ is going to have a general meeting

According to the Společnost přátel Podkarpatské Rusi, on  Saturday 8 April 2017 in the House of national minorities in Prague the general meeting of the members will take place.

During the meeting, the members will  be informed on  the society’s activities in the last period, on managing of the organization, they will also choose a new council. Within a cultural programme at the end of the meeting, also projection of a film by Jan Ciglbauer will take place, the film entitled Stráž obrany státu na Podkarpatské Rusi.

The society

The Society of Friends of the Subcarpathian Rus’ is a social group founded in 1990 and it has been working in the Czech Republic. Among others, it is also a membership organization of the World Rusyn Congress for Czech Republic, it was one of the founders of the congress. It refers to the activity of the Club of Friends of the Subcarpathian Rus’ that was founded in the middle war period in Bratislava. The aim of the society is deepening relations with inhabitants and organizations of the Zakarpattia oblast of Ukraine, the former Subcarpahian Rus’, support for Rusyns within the territory of the Czech Republic or promotion of Rusyns in the Czech Republic. The society publishes also a magazine „Podkarpatská Rus“, as well as other nonperiodical publications.

The members of the Society are Rusyns, Czechs born in the territory of the Subcarpathian Rus and people that have some relations with the territory. The membership base is around 500 members from the Czech Republic, as well as other countries. The managers of the organization from 1990 were: Alexandr Velichko, Jaromir Horzhec, Miloslav Kopeckyi, Irzhi Havel, Agata Pilatova and Dagmara Bzhezinova. These days the organization is led by Jan Chopik.

Stráž obrany státu

As mentioned before, within the meeting also a movie will be presented, the scenario to which was written by a publicist and historician from the Membership Budejovice Jan Ciglbauer, the movie entitled Stráž obrany státu na Podkarpatské Rusi, from 2016.

Stráž obrany státu  was an armed entity in Czechoslovakia which worked in 1936-1939. It was founded on the command of the Chechoslovak authorities on 23 October 1936. The main task was to secure the territorial borders of the state and inviolabiity of the territory. Apart from that, the entity tried to secure the citizenship order and works related to financing. Before the armed entity was created, the borders were protected only by the financing guard that was governed by the Ministry of Finance.

In 1938 the entity had to defend the state not even once, against attacks by the Sudeten German party, soldiers from the Hungarian Szabadcsapatok or Rongyos gárda, as well as Ukrainian nationalists in the Subcarpathian Rus. The entity has gradually trailed away after breakup of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.

ARTICLE WRITTEN ACCORDING TO THE STANDARDS OF PRESOVIAN RUSYN LANGUAGE